Anderson Silva defeats Thales Leites by unanimous decision in a heavily boo'd affair. Both fighters snoozed through the 1st round but at the Championship level you don't want to take any chances. Leites actually won the 2nd round taking Anderson to the mat and controlling him well for a time, though he could not secure a submission or land any real damage. Silva stepped things up in the 3rd but Thales kept moving away avoiding the action. The 4th saw Silva now obviously frustrated, land 3 consecutive kicks to the knee which were interesting, as Thales became MMA's Vlade Divac flopping to the floor constantly wanting a ground war that the "Spider" wanted no part of. Interesting to see Anderson Silva drinking a Red Bull (is that even legal?) in his corner before the final round. Again and finally, Anderson landed some but could not put away Leites who seemed happy just to take the Champion the distance. For all the hate and disappointment from MMA fans, Anderson had good sprawls, attacked when he could even punching Leites' foot (which I've never seen before), and tried to make a fight of it but its hard to impress when your opponent is so careful and unwilling to engage. Beautiful line from Mike Goldberg saying about Thales, "he is overwhelmed emotionally." Huh? That's 10 wins in a row for Mr. Silva.Shogun Rua finally looked in good shape as he and Chuck Liddell had a really entertaining 1 rounder. Both men were the aggressor at times, landed solid strikes, and each got a takedown. Rua just missed a beautiful leg lock but the "Iceman" would have none of it. Shogun came with a left hook that dropped Chuck and Rua dropped hammer fists down until the referee had seen enough. Rua swept in so quickly with the left that Liddell just didn't have time to avoid it
Krzysztof Soszynski took Brian Stann to the floor with a beautiful takedown (almost a slam), moved into half guard and then side control before eventually locking up that kimura he loves tapping out the young prospect. Krzysztof looked in much better shape this time and is so much more comfortable as a Light Heavyweight improving each time out.
Nate "Rock" Quarry just decimated Jason MacDonald with brutal unchecked elbows leaving him in a crimson mask on the floor. The cut was huge and would have stopped the fight if it had been checked by a doctor, but it didn't matter though the ref let the slaughter go on too long. Really good win for Quarry.
Denis Kang got his 1st UFC win with a unanimous decision over "Professor X" while TJ Grant, Eliot Marshall, Sam Stout, Ed Herman, and Luis Cane, also got judges nods. Cheick Kongo beat Antoni Hardonk by TKO but I'm still not impressed and Mark Bocek represented for the redheads with a RNC submission win over the soon to be fired David Bielkheden.
Well, despite the criticism, Anderson Silva keeps rolling along and now Shogun is considered in the hunt for the Light Heavyweight title as Chuck Liddell has lost 4 of his last 5 fights (3 by [T]KO) and finds himself at a crossroads of retiring or trying to continue on much like Wanderlei Silva. How strange that these 2 men's careers have taken similar downward spirals after being so dominant for so many years. Ya gotta love Chuck defending Anderson Silva at the press conference and if you haven't seen it you should! Nate Quarry looked real good but I wouldn't be sending Jason MacDonald home just yet. Look for Hardonk, Bielkheden, Chonan, and possibly Vinny Magalhaes to be on the chopping block. An absolutely dreadful 6-6 on our picks and my sincerest apologies.
1 comment:
1) Your lifetime record is too impressive to piss down the drain trying to Wow us with your upset picks.
2) It seems Leites took notes from Cote, which is interesting since Cote wasn't exactly winning before his ugly injury. Still, Silva did not look impressive, and for all his posturing and shimmying he ignored plenty of opportunities to go for the kill.
3) Chuck's new "hands up" defense looked decent for the first minute or two, despite a couple of good overhand rights from Shogun. But then Chuck dropped the hands to his stomach, like he always does, and left himself wide-open against a very dangerous striker. Just not smart, and we gotta hate seeing this champion fall so fast.
4. Ed Herman looked very good against Louiseau—who looked embarrassingly bad. Who was more retarded: the ref, for constantly threatening to break up the working fighters, or Louiseau for throwing ridiculous spinning kick after ridiculous kick? But FINALLY someone did what I've been begging for so long, which is attack the spun, fairly defensively bad kick-thrower. And this fight commentary was the best I've heard from Joe Rogan in many pay per views. Great to hear him call out the idiot ref. Mike whoever is still worthless, however.
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